Day 86 – Goose Pond Colony to Hales Bar Marina, Nickajack Lake - September 30, 2011

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) generates power along the Tennessee River in a number of ways.  The obvious is hydroelectric power generated by the dams.  However the TVA has also built coal burning power plants and nuclear power plants along the river to supplement the hydroelectric power.  We passed the cooling towers for the Bellefonte nuclear power plant this morning.  This plant was started in 1974 but never completed and as you can probably imagine, it is highly unlikely that it will ever become operational.

We locked through our last large chambered lock today when we locked through the Nickajack Lock.  This lock chamber is 600’ long and 110’ wide.  From here on out, the lock chambers are just 360’ long and 60’ wide.  As we cleared the lock, we could see where Highway 24 crosses Lake Nickajack.  This was an exciting bridge to see because we have crossed it many times in the car and during the last few crossings (since we began planning our Loop) we would comment that someday soon we would be traveling on the water below – yeah, we’ve made it!

            Miles: 58.6      Bridges: 4        Locks: 1

the cooling towers at the non-functioning Bellefonte nuclear power plant

the view up the river

the beautiful rock cliffs continue along much of the river 

coming out of Nickajack Lock and seeing Highway 24 in the distance